Aviation Week Show News - November 12, 2007 - (Page 19)

COMPLETIONS D U B A I 2 0 07 continued from page 56 lowed us to better organize our maintenance activities, too,” said Midcoast president Kurt Sutterer. “We’ve been able to dedicate our maintenance hangars to specific airframes, organizing tooling and teams by product lines.” Midcoast’s new hangar is soon to be joined by a 145,000-sq-ft hangar to support the company’s move into narrowbody aircraft completions. Midcoast offers a full spectrum of services, including maintenance, avionics, electrical and mechanical engineering, avionics design and integration, interior design, airborne office, information and entertainment systems, handcrafted cabinetry, custom upholstering, composites, sheet metal, a state-ofthe-art downdraft paint facility, and certification. The firm specializes in top-tier aircraft support and has hangars dedicated to Bombardier, Falcon, Hawker and Gulfstream aircraft maintenance. BMW Designworks suggests this loft-style bedroom suite for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. L-3 Communications Multifaceted L-3 Communications provides VIP completions through a Waco, Texas-based special programs unit of the company’s products and services division. Military-oriented L-3 promises completions services including “communications systems, sophisticated security detection systems, and missile-defense trip safety installations,” coupling “extensive system capabilities with our custom-designed interior appointments to accommodate each user’s particular demanding requirements, with services matching the same level of luxury found in our customers’ home and work environments.” About 60% of the unit’s work is government and 40% is commercial, “virtually all of it is international,” says Ken McAlpin, director of VIP and head of state completions. “The Middle East is very hot,” he says of the current completions market. “The amount of building and investment is unbelievable, and of course that’s extending to aircraft as well.” L-3 is considering shifting some government work to effectively boost its widebody completions capabilities at Waco. Lufthansa Technik Germany’s Lufthansa Technik with its completions base at Hamburg is known as the first completions center to embark on the “industrialization” of interiors for certain models. By standardizing the options they cut out one-time engineering costs, decrease production time, significantly lower the cost and add to the speed of the completion. This is the Lufthansa T echnik philosophy with the Challenger 850 and via an agreement with Airbus to develop the A318 Elite as a joint product. Lufthansa Technik claims 40 years of design engineering and craftsmanship and more than 30 full widebody completions to date. As a preemi- nent MRO provider, the Lufthansa airline affiliate can also offer full life-cycle support for the business aircraft it furnishes. Lufthansa Technik plans to revive its second widebody completion line at Hamburg, but it warns that the move won’t satisfy world demand. “People are already reserving slots for 2012-13,” says sales and marketing svp Walter Heerdt. A380 Bizjet Idea Is Increasing Pressure The idea of an Airbus A380 superjumbo as a private jet is mind-boggling, but it’s inevitable, too. At least three sales are already rumored, and the first customer will be revealed here tomorrow. The company that wins the first A380 completion will gain major prestige, but also a major headache. “If we win that, in parallel with a Boeing 787, we would be full for widebodies for two years,” says Walter Heerdt, svp sales and marketing at Lufthansa Technik. Boeing has VVIP orders for four Boeing 747-8s and up to nine 787s. Lufthansa Technik, Heerdt says, knows the A380 better than any other completions house because it has worked closely with Airbus over the past few years to ensure a smooth entry into service of Lufthansa’s A380 fleet. The same will be true of the Boeing 747-8, Heerdt maintains, as Lufthansa has ordered 20 of the aircraft and Lufthansa Technik is now developing the engineering and maintenance expertise for entry into service. The Boeing 787, incidentally, will prove a major challenge for every completion center due to its composite construction, Heerdt says. BMW feels that widebody flyers might like to keep an eye on their cars garaged beneath the floor. www.aviationweek.com/shownews November 12, 2007 19 http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

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